I have to admit that I was surprised at how many Irish words for “snowflake” I found as I researched the previous blog (nasc thíos). Before we move on to some other topics, I thought it would be good to review them one more time, looking specifically at how to say “a snowflake” (singular) as opposed to “snowflakes” (plural). This is usually a bit trickier in Irish than in English because in Irish we have to keep in mind the spelling changes caused by grammatical gender (masculine or feminine) and lenition (usually inserting “h”) . But there’s definitely a pattern, at least as far as these 10 words are concerned.

By the way, I’ve limited myself to the 10 words for snowflake that I think are reasonably the most common. As you saw in the last blogpost, there are actually even more. But I think ten is a nice round number for practicing.

So I’ll set the phrases up as a quiz and you can decide as you go whether to use “sneachta” (the basic word for ‘snow’) or “shneachta‘ (the lenited form of the word for ‘snow’). For good measure, we’ll also practice adding the word “the” to the phrase, which may trigger a few more spelling changes to the beginning of the word for “flake” (remember, like when we say “an bhean” for “the woman,” but just “bean” for “woman,” or “an chearc/cearc” for “the hen” and “hen” respectively). Unlike some quizzes and word games I’ve done in the past in this blog, where the number of blanks specifically matches the number of letters to be filled in, here we just have plain lines — otherwise I’d be giving the answers away. The ‘freagraí ‘ will be ‘thíos.’

1)) bratóg __________; an ___atóg __________

2)) cáithnín __________; an ___áithnín __________

3)) calóg __________; an ___alóg __________ Remember, by the way, that this phrase is the most widely used, according to all the times I’ve heard snowflakes discussed in Irish.

4)) fíneog __________; an ___íneog __________

5)) lóipín __________; an ___óipín __________

6)) lubhóg __________; an ___ubhóg __________

7)) slám __________; an ___lám __________ A word of advice for this phrase: it could also mean “a lot of snow,” referring to the entire amount.

8)) slámán __________; an ___lámán __________

9)) slámóg __________; an ___lámóg __________

10)) spitheog __________; an ___itheog __________

Now, on to the freagraí. Of course, you could always have just copied them from the previous blogpost, but then, “Cá mbeadh an dúshlán?” At the end of the answer key, you’ll find a little summary of the rule that actually makes this exercise quite predictable. SGF and I hope you enjoyed this dúshláinín beag. It might also be useful if you’re teaching Irish to beginners — tá súil agam go bhfuil sé úsáideach duit, dóigh amháin nó dóigh eile. — Róislín

Freagraí:

1)) bratóg shneachta; an bhratóg shneachta

2)) cáithnín sneachta; an cáithnín sneachta

3)) calóg shneachta; an chalóg shneachta (italics here because this is the most useful phrase of all, imo).

4)) fíneog shneachta; an fhíneog shneachta

5)) lóipín sneachta; an lóipín sneachta

6)) lubhóg shneachta; an lubhóg shneachta

7)) slám sneachta; an slám sneachta. Remember the advice re: this phrase: it could also mean “a lot of snow,” referring to the entire amount, especially if we say “slám mór sneachta.”

8)) slámán sneachta; an slámán sneachta

9)) slámóg shneachta; an tslámóg shneachta

10)) spitheog shneachta; an spitheog shneachta

An riail (the rule): If the word for “flake” is grammatically feminine, we use “shneachta” instead of “sneachta.” “Snow” is being used as an adjective here, so we follow the same rules as for adjectives, namely lenition, just as when we say “ócáid shona” but “lá sona” for “happy occasion” and “happy day,” respectively. All of the nouns in this list ending in “-óg” or “-eog” are feminine, as they are virtually all the time in Irish (spúnóg mhór, bróg bheag, srl.)

If the word for “flake” is grammatically masculine, we just use the base word “sneachta.” So that accounts for cáithnín, lóipín, slám, and slámán. As you may already know, the ending “-ín” is almost always masculine in Irish, even when it’s used for the word for “girl,” as in “an cailín mór” (the big girl). If somehow the word “cailín” were feminine, we’d have an initial “ch-“, not just a “c” and we’d change “mór” to “mhór.” There are a very few exceptions to this “-ín” rule, but one fun one is “lachín” (duckling), for which we say “lachín mhór” or “lachín bheag.” Words ending in “-án” (like slámán) are almost always masculine (arán blasta, cupán mór). For a word like “slám,” there’s no real clue to the gender, so we have to look it up in a dictionary or deduce it from context. Phrases like “slám mór airgid” tell us that “slám” is masculine. Why? Because the phrase uses “mór” instead of “mhór.”

As for the initial changes to the word for “flake” itself, again, it’s all based on gender. The feminine ones all take lenition (aka séimhiú), so we have the following: an bhratóg, an chalóg, an fhíneog. For “lubhóg” there is no spelling change because we do not write “lh” in Irish. For “spitheog” there is no change because the cluster “sp” is an exception to the lenition rule (as with the “sp” of “an spéir“). For “slámóg,” the lenition rule changes to prefix a “t” without inserting the “h,” giving us “an tslámóg” (say: un TLAW-mohg, the original “s” becomes silent). Similarly, you might remember “an tslat” and “an tsláinte.”

Anyway, sin é and I hope you found this interesting, useful, and thought-provoking. I’m still intrigued by the abundance of words for “snowflake” in Irish, especially since, until recently it seems, snow wasn’t so general or frequent or deep all over Ireland. Remember, today’s blog only dealt with 10 of the possibilities of words for “snowflake.” The previous blogpost included a few more, mostly less commonly used, at least in my experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow#/media/File:Snowflakeschapte00warriala-p11-p21-p29-p39.jpg, public domain; the original work: Warren, Israel Perkins, 1814-92; this image: ComputerHotline-Snowflakes: a chapter from the book of nature ([c1863)]; téacs Gaeilge agus dearadh le Róislín, 2019

(le Róislín)

Irish may not have as many different words for “snow” as the Inuit (estimated at between four and a hundred, depending on how we define “different”), but it does have a healthy range of words for “snowflake.”

The Irish word for ‘snow,’ as many of you may already know, is “sneachta,” a nice, if slightly-disguised, cognate of English “snow,” which is also related to other European words for “snow” (e.g. Schnee, sneeuw, sněžení, sne, neige, neve, nieve, and the ancient Latin “nix” and Greek “nipha”. Initial s’s may come and go in linguistic variations so the differences in the beginnings of the words are reasonably predictable to linguists).

As far as I know, Irish has one basic word for “snow” and various ways to describe it. If anyone knows of any other core terms, I’d be glad to know. Snow can be described in many ways, familiar enough to English speakers, such as “sneachta trom” (heavy), “sneachta éadrom” (gentle, light), “púdar sneachta” (powder, i.e. fine, snow) and “sneachta púdrach” (powdery), “sneachta briosc” (crunchy, crusty), “sneachta síobtha / séidte” (driven, blown). A few additional useful words for this discussion would be “greallach” (mush, slush, also mire, quagmire, and thick soup) and “bogoighear” (slush, lit. soft ice). But more on slush and mush in perhaps a future blogpost. There’s plenty to cover just on snowflakes.

So, on to the flakes themselves. As with English, “flakes” can refer to many different substances, and not all the Irish words for “flake” seem to be used with snow (e.g. sleanntach, scealpóg, scilteán, cladán, cnádán, among others), but we do have the following, as shown in the graphic above:

1)) calóg shneachta, by far the most widely used, in my experience. The plural is “calóga sneachta” — note that the “shn-” spelling for the singular reverts to the basic “sn-” spelling in the plural. Variant spelling: caileog. “Calóga” can be used for other types of flakes, e.g. “calóga arbhair” (cornflakes).

Here are some additional words for “snowflake” that I have found but I haven’t heard any of them used very often, compared to “calóg shneachta.” The core words (bratóg, cáithnín, srl.) all have additional meanings, which in my experience are more widely used.

3)) cáithnín sneachta, a snowflake. “Cáithnín” by itself can mean a small particle of anything; two other words with basically the same meaning, but different spellings, are “cáinín” and “cáinthín.” Plural: cáithníní sneachta.

4)) fíneog shneachta, a snowflake. Curiously, “fíneog” by itself usually means “a mite,” as in “fíneog cháise” (cheese-mite). I assume these are the mites found in cheeses like the German Milbenkäse and French Mimolette, the latter of which, as far as I know, was recently banned in the US. Plural: fíneoga sneachta.

5)) lóipín sneachta, a snowflake. I haven’t found much for “lóipín” itself, except “rag” or “flake” in general. But there is a homonym, “lóipín,” meaning a white “stocking” on the leg of animal. The word “lópa” can mean a vampless stocking (with no “foot” and worn outside the shoe). Connected? Plural: lóipíní sneachta. Variations on this phrase include “sneachta na lóipíní” and “sneachta lóipíneach.”

6)) lubhóg shneachta, a snowflake. “Lubhóg” by itself means a “flake” or “a drop” and “sneachta lubhógach” is snow that is falling in large flakes. Plural: lubhóga sneachta. A variant, pretty obscure in my experience, is “ló,” which can also mean a tuft of wool; “lógach” is a variant of the adjective form.

7)) slám sneachta, a snowflake. “Slám” by itself, like the obscure “ló,” can mean a tuft (of wool, tow, etc.) or a handful in general. Plural: slámanna sneachta. However, one has to be careful when using or interpreting this word, since “slám” can also be used for a fairly large amount of something, especially if paired up with “mór,” as in “slám mór airgid” (a big amount of money).

8 & 9)) slámán sneachta, a snowflake or “a small tuft of something,” almost the same as above, but of a smaller size. Hmm, how does one measure the size of a “tuft” … or of a snowflake? Níl a fhios agam, but somehow a “slámán olla” (a little tuft of wool), is supposed to be smaller than a “slám olla” (a tuft of wool). As for snowflakes, please let me know when you measure some, so we can decide which should be called “slámanna” and which should be called “slámáin“! A “slámóg shneachta” is also “a small flake of snow,” presumably about the same size as a “slámán sneachta.” By itself, “slámóg” can also mean an “untidy woman” — although the connection seems a little vague!

Those are the main examples, I’d say, but there are still a few more words and expressions of interest regarding snowflakes.

a)) “Caoba den tsneachta” can mean “snowflakes,” but I’ve never seen it in the singular. “Caob” can mean “a lump,” “a shovelful of clay,” or “an untidy person” — what is it about snowflakes and untidiness? Níl a fhios agam ach tá sé fíorshuimiúil (intriguing)!

b)) Another obscur-ish phrase is “copaí sneachta” for “large snowflakes.” I can’t find it in the singular, unless “copaí” is a variation of “coipe” which itself is a variation of “coipeadh” (a lather, froth, or foam – something of a stretch to describe snowflakes, since it sounds more like a group noun, but still possible!)

c)) “Cuilithíní” would typically mean “choppy waves,” “small vortices/small vortexes,” or “small ripples,” but it can also mean “whirling flakes,” such as snowflakes, especially if the word “sneachta” follows. One recent example is “cuilithíní boga sneachta” in a Christmas story by Ré Ó Laighléis (“Smeámh na Nollag,” published in Feasta, 2001, nasc thíos; a “smeámh” is “a breath” or “a puff”).

d)) “Lóin sneachta” (snowflake) is listed in Ciarán Ó Duibhín’s Consolidated Glossary of East Ulster Gaelic and in Ciarán Mac Murchaidh’s Focail na nUltach (naisc thíos), but I haven’t found any examples of this phrase in a natural context. The plural might be “lónta” but if it’s related to “leoithne,” the plural could be “*lóintí” or something like that. “Leoithne” was sometimes spelled “lóithne,” and may be related to “lóin,” which can mean either “a small quantity of anything” or “a light blast or puff of wind.” As “a small quantity of something” it could be related to the more familiar word, “lón” (lunch, provisions), but I’m not really sure.

e)) And one more word that I have found can be translated as “snowflake” but it strikes me as somewhat unusual: “aibhleog,” which many of you may recognize as normally meaning “a burning cinder” or “a burning piece of turf.” And for the record, I’ll say I’ve never heard “aibhleog” used for “snowflake” that I can remember. But there’s always a first time and perhaps this will show up soon in some Gaeltacht story.

f)) Finally, there are a couple of phrases that can be translated as “snowflakes” but which literally are just based on the word “snow,” not “flakes” as such. One is “ag biathú sneachta” (showering snow), with “biathú” also being used with “báisteach” in the phrase “ag biathú báistí.” “Biathú” typically means “feeding” (related to “bia,” food) but when it is used to describe the weather, it indicates something about the consistency of the precipitation. For rain, we could translate this as “drizzling”: Bhí sé ag biathú báistí, Raindrops were falling/It was drizzling. For snow, we could probably say “flurrying” as well: Bhí sé ag biathú báistí, lit. It was showering snow, i.e. Snowflakes were falling, or It was flurrying, to establish a difference from “ag cur sneachta” (snowing in general).

g)) Another phrase that can be translated as “snowflakes” but which doesn’t refer to the “flakes” as such is “cáitheadh sneachta” (whirling snowflakes, lit. a beating of snow). “Cáitheadh” can also be used with rain, to indicate heavy rain, as in “Tá sé ag cáitheadh báistí” (It’s pouring rain), so I assume “ag cáitheadh sneachta” would mean “snowing heavily” although I haven’t seen it translated specifically as that.

Well, as so typically happens, examining one word in Irish turns out to involve about a dozen more, but as the proverb says, “Déanann mathshlua meidhréis.” I’d still say that “calóga sneachta” is probably the most widely used of all of the phrases for “snowflakes,” but it’s interesting to know that there are so many possibilities. Hope you found this “suimiúil.” — Róislín

Naisc:

Focail na nUltach, le Ciarán Mac Murchaidh (Droichead na Banna, Co. an Dúin), retrievable at https://studylib.net/doc/7556796/abbreviations-and-references—giorr%C3%BAch%C3%A1in-and-leabhair, although the link seems to direct you to the abbreviations page, not the title page.

Remember the Irish for “unicorn” and “rhinoceros” from the last blog? If not, freagraí thíos. Last time we also included the Irish word “biorbheannach,” which refers to another horned quadruped (ceathairchosach). Remember what that one was? If not, freagra also thíos and a picture of it is thuas.

Having looked at those animals, I thought it would be useful to check out a few more, like the “deer” and the “antelope.”

Here are the Irish words for “deer” and “antelope,” and below, a quick review of aonbheannach, srónbheannach, and biorbheannach from last time.

fia, a deer

an fia, the deer (singular — which we should specify since “deer” doesn’t have a plural in English)

an fhia, of the deer (singular), dath an fhia (the color of the deer)

na fianna, the deer (plural)

na bhfianna, of the deer (plural); gnáthóga na bhfianna (the habitats of the deer)

“Fia beannach,” by the way, means “antlered deer” or “stag,” which we can add to our “beannach/-bheannach” words from last time.

“Fia” shows up in the Irish version of “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” (the proverb): Ná maraigh an fia go bhfeice tú é (lit. Don’t kill the deer until you see it).

And then there’s the antelope.

antalóp, antelope

an t-antalóp, the antelope (singular, since it’s another “zero-plural” noun, like deer and sometimes fish)

an antalóip, of the antelope; beanna an antalóip, the antlers of the antelope

na hantalóip, the antelope (plural)

na n-antalóp, of the antelope (plural). gnáthóga na n-antalóp (the habitats of the antelope)

And here are a few more quadrupeds (ceathairchosaigh) that might have occurred to you, some domestic, some wild. From here on, we’ll just give the primary singular and plural forms, not all four.

As to why some horned animals are called “beannach,” like the aonbheannach, srónbheannach, and biorbheannach, and others are called “adharcach,” like the antalóp ceithre-adharcach, the gasail chaoladharcach, and the caora adharcach, I really don’t know. Barúil ar bith ag duine ar bith amuigh ansin?

As for the continents mentioned in the graphic above, you’ve probably figured them out by now, but just in case:

Meiriceá Thuaidh, North America, possessive: Mheiriceá Thuaidh (muintir Mheiriceá Thuaidh, the residents of North America). For pronunciation, remember the “t” of “thuaidh” is silent, and the “-aidh” part is all vowel sound, so we say “HOO-ee.”

Meiriceá Theas, South America, possessive: Mheiriceá Theas (muintir Mheiriceá Theas, the residents of South America). For pronunciation, remember the “t” of “theas” is silent, so the word sounds like “hass” as in “hassle”

By now, you may have guessed — the Irish for unicorn is “aonbheannach,” (lit. one-horned”). Or you may have picked up the word from reading _Harry Potter agus an Órchloch_ (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) by J. K. Rowling and translated into Irish by Máire Nic Mhaoláin.

But the “aonbheannach” isn’t the only animal whose name is a compound word ending in “-bheannach.” What are the other two – and yes, there’s at least one more besides the “srónbheannach” mentioned in the graphic above.

So let’s look a little closer at the following words: beann (the core word for all of these), aonbheannach, srónbheannach, and our third quadruped player, the “biorbheannach.”

1)) Beann: antler, prong, tine. It can mean “horn” but doesn’t usually since there are at least two other words for horn, such as “adharc” for an animal or “corn” for a musical instrument or cornucopia. Not to be mistaken for two other words with the same spelling: beann (regard, dependence) and beann (the plural possessive form of “binn”, a mountain peak, gable, cliff, corner, flange, side, etc.). The latter is perhaps more recognizable in its other plural form, beanna, as in the Scottish song “Chì mi na mórbheanna”, which under its English name, “Mist-Covered Mountains” was among the musical pieces played at President John F. Kennedy’s funeral.

Here are some other forms of the word “beann” with the meaning “antler,” “prong,” or “tine”:

an bheann, the antler, etc.

na binne, of the antler, etc.

na beanna, the antlers, etc.

na mbeann, of the antlers, etc.

And now, the subject of “Taipéisí an Aonbheannaigh”:

2)) an t-aonbheannach, the unicorn (lit. “the one-horned one”)

an aonbheannaigh, of the unicorn

na haonbheannaigh, the unicorns

na n-aonbheannach, of the unicorns

If you’re wondering why the phrase “the unicorn” has an inserted “t” (an t-aonbheannach), it’s because it’s a masculine singular noun and so gets the “t” just like “an t-uisce” and “an t-úll.” So why is there no “t” in the question used as a caption for the graphic above (“An aonbheannach nó srónbheannach é seo?”), it’s because there are two different words spelled “a-n” in Irish. One means “the” (as in “an bhean”, the woman) and may cause the “t” insertion (an t-uisce, the water)… The other indicates that a question is coming up (technically, the “interrogative particle”). You’ve probably seen it in front of verbs (“An bhfuil tú go maith?“) but it may be less familiar before nouns. It is used before nouns and pronouns fairly frequently, however, in questions like “An móidín Doctor Who thú?” (Are you a Doctor Who fan?) and “An tusa Seán?” Are you “Seán”? or “Sa chistin, an ea?” (In the kitchen, is it?).

Our next “-bheannach” word is “srónbheannach” (lit. nose-horned)

3) an srónbheannach, the rhinoceros

an tsrónbheannaigh, of the rhinoceros

na srónbheannaigh, the rhinoceroses

na srónbheannach, of the rhinoceroses

The genitive singular form (an tsrónbheannaigh) was pleasantly immortalized in Gabriel Rosenstock’s “cnuasach” of poetry, _Spéaclaí an tSrónbheannaigh / The Rhino’s Specs_ (Mercier Pres, 2002). Perhaps you have already read it? It’s great for learners, since it’s bilingual.

Finally, one more animal that is “beannach” (no lenition there because I’m using the word on its own, not part of compound word. “Beannach” by itself can mean “antlered,” “pronged,” etc.

4) biorbheannach, pronghorn, sometimes translated as “antelope” but it’s not technically an antelope. “Bior” on its own means “pointed rod,” “pointed shaft,” “a spit,” “a spike” or “a point.” In combination with other words it can mean a nail, a bit, a stick, a pick, a spindle, a file, etc.

Here are its forms:

an biorbheannach, the pronghorn

an bhiorbheannaigh, of the pronghorn

na biorbheannaigh, the pronghorns

na mbiorbheannach, of the pronghorns

There are at least two types of biorbheannach: Meicsiceach and Tuaidh-Mheiriceánach. Can you figure out where they’re from? Ní as Éirinn iad, ar aon chaoi.

So there we have three animals described as “beannach,” with the “beannach” element built in as part of a compound word. There are a few more “beannach” types of animals, and some plants, but their names are not constructed as “comhfhocail.” These include the following animals: scuilpin bheannach an Aigéin Chiúin (Pacific staghorn sculpin) and coiréalach beannach (stag’s horn coral, yes, it is animal even though it’s sometimes confused with being a plant or even a rock) and the following plant: glasair bheannach (pyramidal bugle – a leithéid d’ainm!). And then there’s one whose kingdom (or whatever) I’m not really sure of because I think all its member have been reclassified: glóthfhungas beannach (the charmingly named “jelly antler fungus,” LA Calocera viscose). So what’s the latest, an bhfuil a fhios agat – are fungi actually plants or their own category? But anything further about the “beanna” involved with these will have to wait for “blag éigin eile.”

‘Sea, an t-am sin den bhliain arís, aimsir na ndea-rún don bhliain nua. In the word cloud (néal focal) above we see some common topics for “dea-rúin na hAthbhliana,” many of which have to do with health (sláinte). How many of them do you recognize?

Here they are again, with a few pronunciation tips. Can you match them up with the English? Freagraí thíos.

1)) neart [tip: the “n” is like the “n” in English “canyon”]

2)) corpacmhainn [tip: this is a compound word, so “corp” and the “ac-” of “acmhainn” have equal stress; in the theory the broad “mh-” could be a “w” sound, but I’ve always heard it more like a “v” or even an “f”,” like “ACK-vun” or “ACK-fun”)

3)) aclaíocht [tip: for the “-aí” combination, only the long i (í) is actually pronounced; the “ch” is as in German “Achtung” or Welsh “bach.” Say: AK-lee-ukht]

4)) fuinneamh [tip: the n’s are also like the “n” of “canyon” and the final ‘-mh” is usually pronounced like a “v.” The initial “f” is very broad, as in the Irish “faoi”–in other words, it’s more like the French “fois” than a typical English “f.” It’s also the same sound as in Myles na gCopaleen’s immortal quote “Phwat is yer nam?” to which, as you may recall, every child was supposed to answer “Jams O’Donnell.” But more on Myles’s masterpiece , An Béal Bocht, (The Poor Mouth) will have to wait for another blogpost. Anyway, the pronunciation is like “FwIN-yuv.”]

5)) sláinte [quite well-known so probably no tips needed, but just in case, remember the ”-ái” is basically “aw” (not like “train” or “drain”) and the “t” is close to a “tch.”

6)) aiste bia [tip: the “s” is pronounced like an English “sh” and “bia” is two syllables, like Irish “Dia” or Italian “Mamma Mia” or “Tia Maria.”

7)) folláine [tip: this word has three syllables, with the final “-e” pronounced. albeit unstressed]

8)) cothú cothrom [tip: both “t’s” are lenited, so only the “h” is pronounced, not the “t”; note the nice, if coincidental, alliteration]

9)) saol sláintiúil [tip: “saol” can be pronounced like “sayl” or “seel” but it’s not like the Italian “Paola” or “Paoli”]

And here are a few more phrases, not in the graphic above (since they’re a little bit “rófhada” for a typical “néal focal“). I give them here as infinitives; note that for the negative ones, we’re literally saying something like “without to be binge-drinking,” etc., not literally using a word like “not.” Translations are also given below.